Rigol MSO2000 vs MSO4000 Series

[Electro Fan]

Saw a review on the MSO2072A and Rigol's response (below).  Is the Rigol MSO4000 series also limited to decoding what is on the screen? 

I guess you can speed up the time base to visually compress the waveform on the screen (so the decodes are not legible), then stop the capture, and then widen out the time base - sort of a workaround.

What is the thinking on the part of MSO2072A users - pretty happy with the decoding / LA?

What are the chances the next generation of Rigol MSOs are going to be significantly better?  (Kind of a tough crystal ball question, I realize.)

Rigol Response:
The decoding is done entirely on the displayed data. You only decode what you see. The deep memory is not used for decoding.
The sampling rate is set primarily by the time per division and the number of active channels. In the context of decoding you simply want to make sure you can view the serial data stream clearly on the screen.
You can use the :WAVEFORM:XINCREMENT? command to query the time between samples. Simply set :WAVEFORM:SOURCE to D0 (or other Digital channel) and query the Xinc value in seconds. The value here also depends on the waveform mode. So, you get the time between samples you are about to receive. That time is higher if you are about to view the displayed data than if you ask for the deep memory.

Rigol is constantly making improvements and has released a number of recent firmware versions that improve decoding usability and features, but architecturally we only decode the data on the screen. The deep memory can be pulled from the scope for further analysis offline, but real time analysis is about what you can view on the screen. That is the best way to use the digital capabilities of the MSO2000A series.

[tautech]

You mean slow the timebase, don't you. 

Unfortunately this is the standard Decoding procedure for this class of DSO.
This is then where the trigger suite available comes in to play to decode on the particular part of the data stream you wish to see.

[mrpackethead]

Is the MSO2000 and 4000 hackable like the 1000 series?

[Electro Fan]

You mean slow the timebase, don't you. 

Unfortunately this is the standard Decoding procedure for this class of DSO.
This is then where the trigger suite available comes in to play to decode on the particular part of the data stream you wish to see.

I might have had my time direction backward?

I meant speed up / compress (for example at 50ms), then widen out (for example at 10ms).

What are the scopes that would fit into the beginning of the next class?

[tautech]

You mean slow the timebase, don't you. 

Unfortunately this is the standard Decoding procedure for this class of DSO.
This is then where the trigger suite available comes in to play to decode on the particular part of the data stream you wish to see.

I might have had my time direction backward?

I meant speed up / compress (for example at 50ms), then widen out (for example at 10ms).

What are the scopes that would fit into the beginning of the next class?

Yes, use a slow setting to gather as much data as possible and the speed up the timebase to see the Decoding.

Next class? Good question, I don't know what DSO's have the processing power to decode in real time, but do you need to? Use the available trigger suite.

[nctnico]

If you need decoding then I'd stay away from oscilloscopes which only decode what is on screen because that is utterly useless.